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Richard Barrett experiments with suspended and altered chords to bring a sense of suspense to your compositions

OVER THE LAST two columns, I’ve demonstrated a handful of what I consider to be essential “blues approved” licks that work well both as embellishments to rhythm parts or as phrases within a solo. Our

Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks

TODAY I'D LIKE to talk about downpicking — picking or strumming consecutive downstrokes — and why it can be so musically effective. This is something I learned from studying the riff-writing style of

‘Never the twain shall meet,’ wrote the famed English novelist Rudyard Kipling – words that might well describe the idea of pairing a symphony orchestra with a heavy metal band. Yet, towards the tail

ONE OF MY favorite sounds in blues and blues-rock soloing is utilizing the “blue note.” I’m talking about the flatted 5th, or b5, which is located one half step below the 5th of the root note of whate